Up-and-coming comedian Aparna Nancherla is having a great year, riding high on a TV comedy special, tour and a new album, Just Putting It Out There — all this while wrestling with some pretty tough personal issues, like depression, on stage.

Fleabag is the name of a British comedy that tackles intimacy, feminism and womanhood. Writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge created the show and plays its main character, also named Fleabag.

"She's a young woman living in London," Waller-Bridge tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "The relationship that she treasures most in the world, treasured most in the world, was that with her best friend who she recently lost in a terrible accident."

When a voter heads to the polls, any number of factors may influence how she casts her vote: party affiliation, her impression of the candidates — or even the design of the ballot itself.

The visual layout of a ballot can have a surprising effect on a voter's decision. And anyone who recalls the 2000 presidential election, which drew national attention to some confusing elements of the Florida ballot, can tell you that designers don't always get it right.

So, who are the people designing the ballots? That depends on where you're asking.

Tippi Hedren played the beautiful blond woman that Alfred Hitchcock liked to put in peril — as in the famous scene in which she opens the door into a dark attic in The Birds, and is pecked by a flock of the title characters.

Hedren survived the attic. But those birds weren't just stuffed props — and the real menace might have been the film's eminent director.

This year's presidential campaign seems to be one of a kind, but it is really part of a bigger picture that stretches beyond the U.S.

Donald Trump's message to anyone who doubts he can win: Look at what happened in the United Kingdom last summer. The vote to leave the EU in June was fueled by some of the same issues that Trump is tapping.

"Believe me. This is Brexit times five. You watch what's going to happen," he said last month.